Historically, agricultural combines have typically included or had associated therewith a crop residue spreader for disposing onto the field from which the crop was harvested the straw and other residue separated from the harvested crop. In addition, some combines have employed a chaff spreader for spreading chaff residue separated from the grain by the cleaning apparatus or system onto the crop field. With earlier spreaders, however, in many instances, uneven distribution of the crop residue occurred, with a greater or heavier concentration often being distributed nearer the center of the swath and a lesser or lighter concentration being distributed father sidewardly. Such uneven distribution resulted in various problems such as, but not limited to, subsequent difficulty in passing fall tillage tools through residue clumps or thick areas, uneven insulation of the field, resulting in uneven field warming and thawing and subsequent uneven crop emergence during the following planting season, and other problems resulting from increased rodent and insect habitat.
Consequently, it was recognized that it would be desirable to be able to spread the straw, chaff, and other residue as evenly as possible over the entire width or swath of that section of the field over which the combine has just passed and from which crops had been harvested. It was also recognized that, in some instances, in order to compensate for crop type, varying moisture and weather conditions, such as wind and the like, and also combine header width, it would be further desirable to have an ability to adjust the crop residue spread.
Efforts to address such concerns and desires have been ongoing, and various crop residue spreaders have been developed which can propel residue a distance equal to about one half the width of a typical combine header, rather than simply dropping or distributing the crop residue behind the spreader. However, such spreaders have continued to suffer from various shortcomings. Many of such spreaders have exhibited a tendency to provide uneven crop residue distribution or coverage in the side-to-side direction over the swath, especially on uneven and varying terrain and in varying wind conditions. For example, with reference to a horizontal spreader, that is, a spreader utilizing one or more rotary impellers or other elements rotatable about generally vertical axes, including axes whose primary orientation is vertical but which may be tilted at acute angles to vertical, and configured for directing a flow or flows of crop residue generally rearwardly and at least somewhat sidewardly, the resultant distribution has often tended to be uneven in the sideward direction, for instance, typically thicker in one region or in one portion of the swath, and thinner or less uniform in another region or another portion of the swath, sometimes due, in part, to varying geographical and environmental conditions. Often, the distribution has been heaviest in the portion of the swath within the combine width, with limited distribution beyond such width.
In recent years, several crop residue flow distributor constructions have been developed for use with vertical, as opposed to horizontal, crop residue spreaders of agricultural combines, including the constructions disclosed and discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,223,168 and co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/804,913. Such constructions have been specifically designed for use with vertical crop residue spreaders, however, and not for use with horizontal spreaders, as a consequence of which, while more even crop residue distribution has been possible when vertical spreaders have been utilized, there has continued to be a problem with the distribution of crop residue when horizontal spreaders are employed.
Accordingly, what has continued to be sought is a crop residue flow distributor that can be utilized with a horizontal crop residue spreader and which can effect more even distribution side-to-side over a region of an agricultural field from which the crop was harvested so as to thereby achieve the advantages, and avoid the shortcomings and problems, of the prior art devices, discussed hereinabove. Users have desired a construction that will provide to them the ability to adjustably distribute or guide portions of a crop residue flow discharged from a horizontal spreader in a desired pattern across the entire width or swath of the harvest cut, under varying geographical and environmental conditions. As a consequence of the continuing efforts to develop improved constructions for use with horizontal spreaders that will overcome the various problems discussed hereinabove, it has now been found that desirable and reliable results can be achieved by employing a residue splitter apparatus, as described hereinafter, that can be employed with horizontal spreaders to deliver improved side-to-side distribution of the crop residue and which can, with some embodiments and in some instances, be adjustably reconfigured to some extent to permit the crop residue flow to be distributed in accordance with desired patterns.